Myrmecophobia

Naturally, four years ago we moved to the Great Anoka Sand Plain, which is basically an enormous ant colony with roads and houses built on top. Asphalt doesn’t stop the ants though – they just plow right through it.

Look closely, and see if you can spot the tiny aphid herders on my butterfly weed:

I took a break from weeding, hoping to catch another monarch caterpillar on the butterfly weed. After staring at the plant for a few seconds, I noticed that the entire thing was moving. Yes – moving because it was completely covered in ants.

My camera was on and I had just taken some close-ups of a dragonfly, so I figured I would snap a few pictures of the ants too. Trust me, it took all of the determination I could muster to stay seated with the camera pointed at this plant.